Hady Amr

Hady Amr is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He is a senior negotiator, nonprofit strategic leader, and coalition builder who is recognized for his expertise as a thought leader in U.S.-Middle East relations including on Israeli and Palestinian affairs, human development and public diplomacy.

Most recently, he served as U.S. special representative for Palestinian affairs from 2022-25, and as deputy assistant secretary of state for near Eastern affairs from 2021 to 2022. Prior to that, he served on the Biden-Harris Transition Team where he focused on the Middle East and the U.S. Office of Foreign Assistance. He previously served at the State Department from 2013-17 on Secretary of State John Kerry’s small team working on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations including as deputy special envoy for economics and Gaza. And from 2010-13, he served as deputy assistant administrator for the Middle East at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) where he helped develop and coordinate numerous assistance programs across the region in response to the Arab uprisings. He also previously held positions at the U.S. Department of Defense NESA Center for Strategic Studies and the Department of Homeland Security. 

During his career, Amr has worked for or advised various international organizations on key human development, institution-building, and public-private partnership issues, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and various United Nations agencies. He also previously held positions at Brookings including as a visiting fellow, nonresident senior fellow, and director of the Brookings Doha Center. Amr has also played key roles in various U.S. presidential campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s in 1996, as Al Gore’s national director for ethnic American engagement in 2000, and as the chief surrogate to the American Muslim community for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In 2020, he helped coordinate Middle East policy for Elizabeth Warren’s primary campaign and then to Joe Biden’s general election campaign.

Amr’s writing has been published in Foreign Policy, the International Herald Tribune, USA Today, and the Washington Post. And he has appeared on various news networks including Al Jazeera, BBC, and CNN. He has also spoken at various venues including the White House, World Economic Forum events in Davos, New York, and the Middle East, as well as at leading universities across the United States.

Affiliations:

• Council on Foreign Relations, life member
• George Mason University, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Schar School of Policy and Government, affiliate faculty
• International Education and Resource Network, member, board of directors
• Tufts University, Tisch College of Civic Life, member, board of advisors